In U.S. Pat. No. 4,246,698 of Jan. 17, 1981--the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein--the present inventors teach a suture remover surgical instrument of generally scissor-like configuration in which a pair of shanks are pivotally connected intermediate their ends for relative movement therebetween. The first shank carries on one of its ends a blade having a cutting section, while the second shank carries on its corresponding end a shearing portion having a cutting edge, so that the cutting section and cutting edge are movable toward and away from each other along a cutting plane. An elongated suture gripping element formed of a resilient material includes a contact area at one end and is attached as by soldering, at its other end to the shearing portion, the contact area being so disposed that as the cutting section and cutting edge are operatively moved toward each other along the cutting plane for shearing contact with a suture, the gripping element is deformed whereby its contact portion is resiliently moved along the cutting plane and substantially perpendicular to its elongation. In addition, a bend provided in and along the place of the gripping element adjacent its end connection to the shearing portion advantageously facilitates distribution of the deformation of the gripping element between the bend and the end connection to prevent premature deterioration of the end connection and thereby extend the useful operational life of the instrument.
The present invention represents an improvement over applicants' prior teaching. A particularly advantageous feature of the instant invention lies in its construction from a single, elongated strip of material so that each of the structural elements of the suture remover instrument--including the gripping element--are unitarily formed and integrally connected. In addition to substantially reducing the number of manufacturing steps and, therefore, its production cost, the entirely unitary, one-piece construction of the instrument essentially eliminates the possibility of premature deterioration or breakage of soldered or otherwise bonded or separately connected elements and thereby provides notably increased reliability in a precision suture removing instrument. Moreover, the modified tweezer-like configuration and various structural features of the preferred embodiment herein disclosed provide improved operating characteristics and attributes over functionally similar prior art devices with increased reliability and at reduced production cost.
It is accordingly the desideratum of the present invention to provide an improved suture remover for cutting and gripping a surgical suture, in which the instrument is formed of a single, elongated strip of material so that all of its structural elements are unitarily integral and its operating reliability correspondingly increased.
It is a particular object of the invention to provide such a suture remover that is readily manufacturable utilizing well known techniques at substantially reduced cost over similar prior art devices without decreasing its utility or sacrificing its features or abilities with respect thereto.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a suture remover constructed of a resiliently deformable material in a modified tweezer-like configuration such that only a minimum operating force need be applied by a user to cut and grip a surgical suture.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment considered in connection with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims.